Where Fashion Inspiration Comes From Cultural Studies Essay

Where m gray-headed Inspiration Comes From Cultural Studies EssayIn the words of Coco Chanel, make is about what is happening. Fashion decorators always use the idea of enthusiasm is on the street. Consumers themselves especially the young ones, are truly inventive and inquisitive about clothing and causalitys whole tone to this for rapture and innovation when creating impudent ideas. One typical look initiated many years ago by the young and ordinary people off the street, are jeans, straightway every designer has their stimulate signature version.Trends and the up-to-the-minute looks follow todays shifting society. Sports events like the Olympics and what is happening in the media, movies and music also reflect fashion. Famous celebrities are an excellent opportunity to promote new looks and influence ideas. The runways mirror what is happening in the universe of discourse and fashion designers use this to create their work. In the fashion world they call it the bubb le-up-effect, which could be an otherwise reason to why fashion appears to have a similar look or theme, especially if all designers are tune up into the spirit of the current times for inspiration.Carl Jungs theory about the collective unconscious which studied peoples minds and showed that it is inevitable in todays ever growing society for individuals to reflect and value the same ideas, at the same time. Is this not a consideration to designers when accusing other people of copying and plagiarising their work, that instead these designs, are original in their own right, especially when all designers are looking at the world around them, to influence their work.Clothes are about dressing a human be and the proportions of the human body are split into three blocks. The head, the trunk, which runs from the shoulders to the pubis and finally the extremities, which include two arms and two legs (Martin,2009,pg73). Apparel has to fit around this shape, so it could be argued that de signs depart take on similar looks to others, as no dress would be made to fit a three armed person.Fashion forcasting within the indus afflict has become big business and plays a huge part when informing designers and their team, of what is deemed to be the newest fashion themes and colours for the following season. Agencies such as Nelly Rodi based in Paris have over 30 trend forecasters who travel all over the world gathering photographs, illustrations and fabric swatches for inspiration for their trend-books. each(prenominal) season this agency produces separate trend books incuding knitwear, colours, prints and ready-to-wear to be sent to their clients which include Mango, HM, Givenchy amongst other high profiled prt a porter designers (Seivewright, 2007,pg 82/83).There are lots of these agencies around including Style-Vision, Trendspotter, Informat who all do exactly the same job. However, an online service called Worth Global Style Network created in 1998 is the preeminent online trend-analysis and research service, which in a click of the mouse provides creative and business intelligence for the apparel, style, design and retail industries. (wgsn,online). This appears to be the quickest means to get the latest information to designers quotes Roger Tredre, the WGSNs editor-in-chief especially with the ever changing nature of fashion, speed is of the essence (Seivewright, 2007,pg 86).It is extremly difficult to speak to a designer and ask them were they get their inspiration from, as nobody wants to give away their sources and of course, nobody would ever admit to using other peoples ideas. However, according to a New York based fashion designer designers do look to other designers for inspiration (see appendix 1). However the word homage always appears to be an influential tool in designing. This could be either an old iconic fashion designer, such as the late Christian Dior who inspired collections for Vivienne Westwood, with his new look of the late 1940s and also paintings from French Rococo workman Jean-Antoine Watteau.Vivienne Westwood, in an interview for the Victoria and Albert Museum, spoke about how Christian Dior had inspired her through his designs, one being the long black fitted wool new look dress. This is a form of tribute and homage to a designer, as instead of stealing his original ideas and innovation, she has celebrated him for influencing her work, as she was a teenager growing up when this magical look was around and women were starting to dress more glamorous. Today Vivienne Westwood finds her inspiration from the past especially in the VAs collections of fashion, furniture and paintings. (vam,2004,online)However, in the character of Muiccia Prada homage and inspiration is purchasing a jacket in an expensive Paris vintage store called Didier Ludot and the next season this identical Dior jacket is in the new Prada collection. No different in design to the one bought antecedently from Paris. This surely is not homage rather design theft. Topshop or any other high street store would not get away with this stolen innovation, especially if it was a near identical to a influential top end designer such as Prada or Chloe. Fashion designers have always looked back through the archives of history for inspiration. (learcenter,2005,online)From a recent email from a designer who works for Ralph Lauren in New York and who has previously worked for Abercrombie and Fitch, spoke not exclusively about designers looking to other designers for inspiration, but the importance of vintage garments. They also try to copy these vintage designs in more modern fabrics and put their own spin on them. Another idea was looking again at what had previously sold well in the past and updating this in new fabrics and different colours. Another creative and fun idea is using snippets from bought and vintage samples, and meeting different ideas together a collar from one style with a pocket of another (Appendix 1) .In a Marc Jacobs documentary filmed in 2006,for his 2007 shows, Marc Jacobs who designs for Louis Vuitton as well as under his own label, shows where he gets his inspiration from. He uses walls covered in vintage fashion magazines, posters, flowers and old tortured fabrics to gather new innovation, using snippets from all these sources to enthuse new ideas. Again he looks through the archives of their successful designs and updates previous lines. Bricolage, is a french term utilise in the creative process of fashion and according to many is one of the primary dynamics. This term simply means reinventing something new by changing elements, mixing and speech the clothing back to life by inputting new fabrics and stitch ideas. This is evident amongst all designers including Marc Jacobs An old mauve jumper becomes a lovely updated cashmere jumper (youtube,2006,online).With so much dress history available today shown in costume museums and vintage Vogues, as well as other influential magazines, it comes as no surprise that designers will always look to the past or other cultures for inspiration. Vivienne Westwood has in many collections used direct references to historical silhouettes and styles, such as notable paintings.Here is a picture of the Watteau evening dress created by Vivienne Westwood for a collection in 1996. This style is influenced from a Watteau painting of his cousins captured in image 1. It is very obvious in the shape and fullness of this dress that this artist, has inspired her with this creation.Victorian interpretations have always been a source of inspiration for other designers including DG who used the Victorian sleeves to inspire him, when creating a different look to a contemporary denim jacket.Fashion frequently looks to shape and materials of the past, as a form inspiration for new styles, as the workmanship and attention to detail is rarely achievable nowadays. According to Sue Jenkyn Jones who wrote the book Fashion Design, it als o triggers a nostalgia for bygone lifestyles and the mad aspect of clothing is an important element of design (Jones,2005,pg24).New technologies in fabrics and prints have always been seen as a form of inspiration. Designers will often use up materials, gaining and enthusing ideas from its look, feel and aesthetics,before designing a garment. This will then generate ideas from the silhouette and shape the fabric forms. Moodboards and visuals of a theme or idea will then start to be created selecting colours, historical references, lace, trims and eventually, ideas will start to present themselves.Fabric trade shows have a huge impact on the fashion world, however Premiere Vision which is held in Paris, every September, is the largest and the most influential of these events. Over 800 fabric manufacturers, as well as a huge troops of designers and buyers attend these shows. Apparently it is not unusual to see designers like Christian Lacroix at these events, looking for inspiratio n as well as new alter weaves (Tungate,2005,pg81/82).It is easy to see now were inspiration comes from, however when inspiration gets mistaken for imitation, how fair is this. Resources are put at risk. Designers invest time as well as huge amounts of money sourcing inspiration, testing fabrics, drafting dress patterns and checking that their creations are fresh, innovative and of a quality for there discerning customer. Who pays the price or is it only fair that every fashionista gets a chance to own a piece of luxury.